Re: Bug#353277: ndiswrapper in main
Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org> writes:
> Sure. The unfortunate side effect is that some reasonable fraction of
> people who would use those drivers cannot install from install media
> that contain only Debian. They require bits of non-free. As is often
> pointed out, Debian has chosen (twice) to make life hard for those
> users. I guess the preferred solution for them is to just use some
> other distribution.
We have chosen to have a free operating system.
That means, of course, that hardware which can only be supported by a
non-free driver, is not supported by Debian.
It means that file formats which can only be read by non-free
software, are not supported by Debian.
It means that network protocols which are only implemented by non-free
software, are not supported by Debian.
It means that languages, which can only be processed by non-free
compilers and interpreters, are not supported by Debian.
Why should the first of these be granted some special exemption?
The preferred solution, of course, is to do the hard work of
supporting such things with free software!
Second to that, the next-best solution is *not to buy such hardware*,
*not to rely on such formats*, *not to use such protocols*, *not to
write code in such languages*.
Thomas
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